Outlook Good!
Mikki Aronoff and Katherine Silver-Hajo
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Math exam looming, me procrastinating, I tune in to the probability of a passing grade like a luminous radio dial, unfazed by the static of Long John Silver’s tatty parrot, shoulder-bound but hankering for a branch, squawking salty bilge—Pieces of nine! Pieces of nine!—bird and pirate drunk as a pair of zig-zagging sailors, fetid breaths sour as an infinity of arguments or card tricks never mastered. Light floods the room like a tangerine sun teasing fog into dispersal, clearing a tempest of three don’t count on it’s and seven very doubtful’s snagged in the folds of my brain. The Fibonacci sequence presents itself as sunflower heads spiraling around me, prickly points of isosceles triangles pirouette before my eyes, and six pretty maybe’s drift to the tippy-top of my Magic 8 ball. I sharpen my pencils, head on over to class.
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Mikki Aronoff lives in New Mexico, where she writes tiny stories and advocates for animals. She has stories in Best Microfiction 2024/2025 and Best Small Fictions 2024 and upcoming in Best Small Fictions 2025. More at https://www.facebook.com/mikki.aronoff/.
Kathryn Silver-Hajo’s work appears in many lovely journals. Her award-winning books include flash collection, Wolfsong, and YA novel, Roots of The Banyan Tree. More at: kathrynsilverhajo.com; facebook.com/kathryn.silverhajo; twitter.com/KSilverHajo; @kathrynsilverhajo.bsky.social
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Posted in When in Rome: Nov '25 and tagged in #boudin, #fiction, #flashfiction, Fiction